The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
Incidence of obesity and renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are increasing, and RCC remains a lethal disease if not identified at an early stage. There is an increasing body of evidence linking obesity to the risk of developing RCC.
There is a wealth of epidemiological evidence supporting a higher risk of developing RCC in obese individuals, and in a dose-response manner. This is particularly pertinent in the development of the clear cell subtype (ccRCC), in which there appears to be a special interplay between ccRCC, obesity and von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene defects, driving the proangiogenic/proliferative pathway as a result of metabolites produced by adipose tissue, the epigenetic silencing of a tumour suppressor in close proximity to the VHL gene, hypoxia, obesity-related hypertension, lipid peroxidation and increased insulin-like growth factor-1.
Obesity-related diseases, including cancers, are increasing. There are many complex biomolecular pathways interacting in obesity, especially in ccRCC in which there appears to be a specific interplay in VHL mutations.
Written by:
McGuire BB, Fitzpatrick JM. Are you the author?
Reference: Curr Opin Urol. 2011 Jul 1. Epub ahead of print.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21730854
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